Chinese Attackers Hacked into NSA

According to M.K. Narayanan, who was the National Security Advisor of India until recently, the Office of NSA was targeted with a cyber attack from Chinese hackers, as per the news published by hindustantimes.com on January 19, 2010.

Explaining the incident, Narayanan stated that the government's different departments received e-mails containing a PDF attachment, which apparently had a Trojan virus. If the attachment would have opened, it could have let a hacker gain remote access to the PC, thereby downloading files.

Moreover, hacking attack against India is nothing new. Chinese hackers, from time-to-time, have tried to get hold of information pertaining to the Indian government.

The NSA Office claims that Chinese hackers, with the support of Beijing, have reportedly conducted a record number of attacks on several governments across the world, including Japan, the US, Germany and Taiwan. It seems China views these attacks as a way towards testing its abilities to execute cyber attacks.

Furthermore, hackers have attacked the campaigns of both McCain and Barack Obama as well. It's assumed that these attacks have been to intercept crucial details regarding the US' future President. Consequently, Chinese hackers appear to be associated with personalized or targeted attacks also.

Thus, considering these wicked details, the NSA said that it appears to be well-furnished that it was not other than the Chinese hackers who attacked the NSA. It also stated that in efforts to boost India's cyber defenses, the country was working in collaboration with Britain and the US.

Responding to NSA's statement, a Chinese Embassy spokesman in India said that China, being a legal country, identifies hacking as a violation of law, reported merinews.com on January 19, 2010.

It is worth noting that on December 15, 2009, the day when the NSA's Office was attacked, Google and other US companies too reported constant online assaults from China. In fact, Google, after revealing the sophistication of the Chinese cyber attacks stated that it would no longer censor search results for Chinese Web surfers although that might mean closing its operations in the country.